Rating: 
Summary: My favorite Lem
Review: This is my favorite Lem book (I've read fifteen or so), but largely because I identify strongly with the protagonist, care passionately about space travel, and was won over by the pivotal wilderness scene. This is a study of culture shock, and in my early middle age I am undergoing acutely a kind of culture shock Alvin Toffler some decades ago termed "future shock": the psychological effect of rapidly accelerating technological change. Most of my peers deny they are experiencing anything akin, but that denial is belied by their pride in their pathological falling over themselves to "keep up" and their pride in their ability to kid themselves they ARE keeping up. In any case, I very much recommend this book.I suspect that especial fans, so to speak, of Stanislaw Lem will also enjoy the works of Milan Kundera (which see), and while I'm recommending things, there is also--for musicians--"Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz Rock Keyboardist" by Jeff Burns.
Rating:
Summary: A quiet masterpiece of speculative fiction--sadly o.o.p.
Review: This is one of those books that you read, put down, read again and then find something that is scarily predictive of not the far future, but of recent times. Very odd indeed. The plot of "Return from the Stars" is just that: space travelers from Earth return, but much time has passed. They are essentially visitors to their own future. But the Earth has taken trendy ideas such as non-violence and translated these ideas in ways no one could fathom. Man has not evolved, but society has evolved a way to tame Man; for example, when a man visits a woman, and the woman decides that no sexual intimacy should be the outcome of the encounter, she offers the man a drink of Britt. This substance, which is stocked in every young woman's refrigerator and looks like a bottle of milk, renders the man incapable of desire or acting upon that desire. How presumptive! Every man is a rapist. Yet, this book was written long before much radical feminist writing that asserted much the same idea. Women dress oddly, painting their nostrils red and wearing bells in their shoes. The tiny details point out the fact that the returnees are foreigners to what was once their home and is now in no way their future, though it is their heritage. Lem makes some interesting extrapolations. Some of them even came true in his own lifetime. This is actually one of the few Lem books that stuck with me, and it is a darn shame it is out of print. It is really a quiet masterpiece of speculative fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Throughly engaging ...
Review: This one is a page-turner that keeps you up till all hours of the night! It is not like some of Lem's more comedic novel(la)s but nonetheless it is still a great read. Great characterization and offers a philosophical look at the improvement of society and space travel, amongst other issues. It is precisely Lem's blending of cognitive, societal, moral, and scientific issues that leave other sci-fi writers in the dust... Without a doubt, Lem does credit to the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Throughly engaging ...
Review: This one is a page-turner that keeps you up till all hours of the night! It is not like some of Lem's more comedic novel(la)s but nonetheless it is still a great read. Great characterization and offers a philosophical look at the improvement of society and space travel, amongst other issues. It is precisely Lem's blending of cognitive, societal, moral, and scientific issues that leave other sci-fi writers in the dust... Without a doubt, Lem does credit to the genre.
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